The Strokes are an American alternative rock band. The band's members are Julian Casablancas (lead vocals), Nick Valensi (guitar), Albert Hammond, Jr. (guitar), Nikolai Fraiture (bass guitar) and Fabrizio Moretti (drums and percussion). They were one of the four bands that were supposed to "save rock and roll" - specifically,
Alternative Rock radio - for the new millennium along with The Vines,
The White Stripes and The Hives. Out of those four, only these guys and
The White Stripes are really remembered fondly.
The band was formed in 1998, but the members have known each other since childhood. They released a few
E Ps that got them recognition and which launched a
massive bidding war between record labels. Finally, the band settled with RCA and released their
Magnum Opus Is This It in 2001.
Then...well, it's a bit
hard to explain what happened from there. Their next two albums,
Room On Fire (2003) and especially
First Impressions Of Earth (2006), are not as highly regarded as the first. Many fans theorized that
Executive Meddling was involved, but the truth likely lies in the fact that
they set the bar so high with the first album.
The band went on hiatus after the disappointing reception of
First Impressions Of Earth, just to come back in 2011 with a new album titled
Angles. The album has gotten very mixed reviews from critics, showing a step up from
First Impressions Of Earth but still not a return to form for them. Currently, the band is in the midst of both a festival tour and
the recording of their fifth album.
Yes, already.
Tropes:
- Album Title Drop: In "Reptilia": "The room is on fire, as she's fixin' her hair..."
- Darker and Edgier: First Impressions of Earth.
- Garage Rock: Is This It and Room On Fire were easily two of the biggest albums to come out of the garage-rock revival.
- Lyrical Dissonance: "Someday".
- The Rival: The Hives were their rivals for a few years, but they quickly went in a different direction. The Vines and The White Stripes could count as well.
- New Sound Album: Angles (and, to a lesser extent, First Impressions Of Earth.)
- New Wave: Heavily present on Angles, especially in the songs "Two Kinds Of Happiness" and "Games".
- Non Appearing Title: A lot. The new album only has one song ("Taken For a Fool") where the title appears as written.
- Though "Two Kinds of Happiness" appears in-song as well, if you count the opening lyrics, "Happiness is two different things."
- Perishing Alt Rock Voice
- Signature Song: It's changed a few times over the years, but most will tell you either "Someday" or "Last Nite".
- Stop and Go: "Last Nite" and "Hard To Explain".
- And on Angles, "Gratisfaction."
- Too Soon: After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the band removed "New York City Cops" from the American tracklisting of Is This It, due to the lyric "New York City cops/they ain't too smart"*
Although the song itself isn't about the intelligence of the NYPD, the chorus is merely a random quote from the girlfriend of the song's protagonist
. It was replaced with the b-side "When It Started" (except on the US vinyl version, which retains the original track listing).
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